Friday, November 04, 2011

Pop culture tv siren Markie Post - Reloaded

Today 80s Power Girl Markie Post celebrates her 61st birthday so I wanted to give this tv cult siren from my youth some props and take a stroll down memory lane to reminiscence about tv shows gone by.


Yes, it seems that lately this blog has been more about tv and movies then about comics but I have done other posts about pop culture icons like LOGAN´S RUN or PUMPKINHEAD . So this is not so unexpected. By the way, I have decided to keep the new look of the blog a bit longer since I didn´t get as much mileage out of it during Halloween as I thought. Who knows, if enough readers like it I might make it a permanent thing.

Since we have November this means ARTHUR ADAMS TRIBUTE MONTH is now officially over. So don´t expect to find those groovy Arthur Adams pics in every post. There may be some but it´s not mandatory anymore.


After we have these announcements out of the way let´s get started with the main post. As usual I´m going to take a few tangents, make some off - topic remarks ( although there is no off - topic on this blog ) and basically let my thoughts ricochet from everything that catches my fancy.

MAKIE POST : TELEVISION SERIES BIKINI CULT SIREN OF MY YOUTH

Markie Post had appearances on tv shows like CHiPs, The incredible Hulk, Buck Rogers in the 25th century, Hart to Heart, Eight is enough, The Greatest American Hero, Simon and Simon, Matt Houston, Love Boat, Cheers, A - Team or Hotel so when you were watching tv in the 80s you were bound to catch her somewhere sooner or later. She was probably best known outside of Germany for playing public defender Christine Sullivan in the NBC sitcom Night Court from 1985 to 1992. The reason why the series is not so well known in Germany...well, we´ll come to that part a bit later. Let me just say that she only wore the outfit with the giant sized Power Girl - like cleavage window below in a special episode.


Aside from that she also played bail bonds contractor Terri Michaels on the tv show THE FALL GUY ( who replaced previous bail bonds contractor Samantha Jack played by Jo Ann Pflug ) beginning with Season 2.

At the beginning she played a minor role but one of the producers must have realized what a waste it is to have somebody like Markie on the cast without letting her " show what her Mama gave her " like they say Today.

 
So she got more involved in the stories where she stole the scene from Heather Thomas as soon as she donned a bikini ( mainly in Season 3 ), like in this scene from the " Inside, Outside " Season 3 episode 8. There is this young stud is hitting on her since he immediately realizes that an experienced woman with such a pornstar body is way beyond the young girl he usually dates. You can´t fault his taste in women but she says no, not because he hasn´t the necessary virility but because as a lawyer she doesn´t want to go to jail for taming a possible ( well endowed ) minor.



I have to admit I never saw the full episode but I like to think that in the end Terri Michaels ( that´s who Markie Post plays on the show ) turns out to be really cool because she has learned that life can be shorter than you think and you have to enjoy it. So she appears in the bar the young stud goes to in her best " fuck me right now " dress that shows every inch of her spectacular physique and all his friends are speechless. Especially when she leaves with him for the rest of the weekend to do ..... guess what, consequences be damned. But let´s get back to our topic.

Now there is this period in life where you are already interested in girls but because you´re still not 18 you can´t get the PLAYBOY, which in the times before the internet was a big thing. So as a pubertal boy in his prime you were looking for other stimulation which could be books, pulps, pin ups, BRAVO starpuzzles in - I don´t know how many - parts or comics with Black Canary in underwear.


Follow the link to DAVE´S LONGBOX post on Black Canary´s underwear and you will see that I wasn´t the only one who studied this panel intensely.

So my age group had different sources for hot massitas but most often it was television. There were a few tv shows that were indispensable if you wanted to join in the schoolyard conversations, which were must see tv. One of the shows we watched was THE FALL GUY , in german EIN COLT FÜR ALL FÄLLE - A Colt in any case - don't ask me, typical unrelated german translation at work here. The original title is a clever play on words since a " fall guy " can be a scapegoat who will take the fall for someone else so to speak, a stock character which is a two dimensional archetype on television or literally someone who takes the fall for someone else like a stunt man does for the actor in a movie.

THERE´S SOMETHING ABOUT HEATHER THOMAS - AND HER BLUE BIKINI

The series had everything a good tv show needed : a cool main character, car chases, fisticuffs, explosions, shooting, monkeys, dangerous stunts, a lot of celebrity guest stars and the hot hardbody of Heather Thomas.


She played stunt body double ( and what a body it was ) Jody and her job was to keep the male viewers hooked by providing eye candy. She was in all episodes except for an episode in the first season. Yes, fan service is not as new as some people might want you to think and Heather Thomas mainly got the part because of her absolutely amazing bikini figure.


It took a few episodes before she could strut her stuff but once the tv guys got a taste of Heather it happened more often and the famous blue bikini scene was quickly added to the new intro of the second season.


For generations of adolescent young boys the only highlight of the week was the short moment during the intro of FALL GUY where sexbomb Heather Thomas appeared in her famous blue bikini ( if she - or later on Markie Post, or both of them - didn´t wear a bikini in the episode ).



Interesting fact : one of the stunt shots in the intro was not even done by a stuntman.

Jody was the female sidekick to main man Colt Seavers ( played by Lee Majors ), a very capable and sexy young woman who Colt saw as his equal or at least like a surrogate daughter. Which was a bit frustrating for her since I think she had a crush on him which he - of course - never realized.


I´m not sure what Lee Majors is doing at the moment, the last two things in which he appeared that I know of was the BEN 10 live action movie ( which I sadly missed ) and his cameo on the final episode of Season 1 of HUMAN TARGET where he played OCC - Original Christopher Chance.

But Jody Banks was the reason guys watched THE FALL GUY.....well, apart from Colt who was just too cool. Which is something that I realized later when the show was in reruns. When it first aired I couldn't watch many episodes but later on I caught them in the rerun. And I realized that Colt suffers from what many writer refer to as the " Superman Syndrome ".

It is the effect certain characters like Superman have on some writers - because he's perfect and invulnerable it's difficult to get the reader to connect with him and they don´t know what to do with him. Which can lead to strange storylines, relaunches and ultimately even to reboots.


If a character is never in real danger and is perfect in everything he does - nobody cares for him. He's boring. Colt can do whatever he decides to do - stunts, fights, drink, sex......he's always the best. Which is the reason why when you watch the episodes the second time you realize that Howie Munson is the real hero.

That's right. Howie is the one who is not perfect. Quite contrary ! You can almost be sure that he fails no matter what he tries. What makes him the hero is that he keeps on trying no matter how often he fails. Studying was apparently not his thing so he decided to do the most dangerous stuff he could think of - becoming a stunt man. He just jumps into the pool without looking if there's any water in it.


And yes, that's the comic relief in most episodes but for me Howie personifies the guy who accomplishes things through sure determination and endurance. He has no super powers like Colt but he just puts on the Superman costume and tries to fight Lex Luthor. When you see the show the first time as a kid you want to be Colt because he´s just perfect but when you watch it again after you´re older you begin to admire Howie.

Another thing I only got when I saw THE FALL GUY for the second time was who the people Colt knows are. When I first saw the show I didn´t know most of the famous people on the show with a few exceptions.


I knew some of the actors or actresses but with most people I only knew that such - and - such was a famous singer, actor, director or whatever because it was mentioned in the episode. Yes, I have to admit that when I first saw the Elvira episode ( " October The 31st " episode 7 of Season 4, in which Jody Banks is Elvira´s stunt double and I have to say, either Heather Thomas has way bigger boobs than Elvira actress Cassandra Peterson or she used a ridiculous amount of  padding to achieve Elvira´s trademark cleavage ) I had no idea that she was a world famous horror hostess. Which in no way diminished my enjoyment of said episode.


When I first saw the series the fact that Colt had two jobs ( stunt man and bounty hunter ) was a bit strange for me but seen from Today´s perspective - where most people have to do two or more jobs to make ends meet - the show was more visionary that I thought. Colt was the prototype of the modern 21st century man so to speak. Of course Lee Majors also played another kind of prototype as television´s first cyborg, the Six - Million - Dollar Man Steve Austin,


not to be confused with wrestling Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase.


I never watched the BIONIC MAN series with Lee Majors because that was a bit before my time but I saw plenty of wrestling matches of Ted DiBiase. Back when german wrestling shows were still emtertaining instead of pure commercials and the WWF still had stars instead of the generic, easily disposable cyphers that now plague the squared circle.

Right now DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT is doing a new BIONIC MAN series, written by Kevin Smith with covers by Alex Ross that I might check out. As I´m not very familiar with the source material - I think the only thing I know is that sound from the slomo that pops up on shows like PIMP MY RIDE or that commercial with Lee Majors - I´m not going in with too much baggage.


With most of my DC books eliminated from my pull list I´m reading more independent titles expanding it to publishers like IDW from which I already got the 4 issue ROCKETEER ADVENTURES book,


JOHN BYRNE´S NEXT MEN ( John Byrne´s Next Men FAQs )


and the absolutely brilliant LOVE AND CAPES .


I´m also thinking of getting the DR WHO trade that continues the Hundred Penny Press issue I got but I´m not sure which trade to order. One thing I´m definitely going to order is Jim Starlin´s KID COSMOS trades from DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT since I´m a big fan of his cosmic sagas. So far I have only found one online comicshop that has them at all but I think they are going to be in one of my next orders.


Another thing about THE FALL GUY I found strange - or better about american tv series in general - was how many people were bounty hunters. It didn´t strike me as a very safe profession : you are chasing bad guys and criminals, you risk personal injury and a single stray bullet can get you into an early grave. Despite this all there were dozens of tv series with bounty hunters in it long before Dog, and in RENEGADE even the main character who was on the run from bounty hunters was a bounty hunter. By the way, if you don´t know RENEGADE ( oh, how I envy you ! )  you should avoid at all costs unless you´re a really big fan of Gambit or Lorenzo Lama´s wife Kathleen Kinmont who´s real centerfold material.


Anyway, a former cop who is on the run from bounty hunters and works as a bonty hunter. Isn´t that the worst idea ever ? I mean, how does he know that he´s not going to meet another bounty hunter while he´s hunting a fugitive and then the other bounty hunter suddenly recognizes him from the wanted poster : " Hey, I know your face. You´re that other dude the police is searching. You´ve got a bigger reward than the guy I was after in the first place. I think I´m going to bring you in instead. "

Not that RENEGADE was the epitome of logic but how did they miss this one ? And they even had an episode in which all the bounty hunters met.

What I didn´t know was that all one has to do is absolve a one week course and pay a 50 Dollar fee to get a bounty hunting license. And if you are after the right guy the reward money is more than you can earn in a regular job. If that´s a possible career for you check out the wikipedia page about bounty hunters , read the FAQs about How to become a Bounty Hunter or visit the main page of Be A Bounty Hunter.com.


My favorite part is Can a felon become a bounty hunter ? because the answer reminds me a bit of those Radio Eriwan jokes we used to tell in school. In general, the answer is " no " but there are exceptions.........

HEATHER THOMAS´ MISSPENT YOUTH ( YOUTHFUL BODY THAT IS )

But back to Heather Thomas . Thanks to her absolutely stunning 37 ( ! ) - 23 - 32 measurements and the exposure in THE FALL GUY she became a famous pin up model with posters in every boy's bedroom from that time.


She even replaced pin up goddess Raquel Welch on the number one spot.


Careerwise Heather just didn't manage to cash in on her popularity with her mostly male audience because she didn't want to use her physical attributes to succeed. It was what made her famous in the first place but Heather thought she could do without it. Which is often a mistake.

When you have managed to position yourself in the business - no matter in which niche - it's very hard to have success when leaving that niche.


Heather had managed to place herself in the top spot as " hot blonde bikini babe " but when she tried to enter the " actress with a body like a playmate of the year who doesn't take her clothes of " sector there were already hundreds of actresses there - with far better acting abilities.

It's the same thing that happened to the LADY DEATH comic.


Through the hard work of many years CHAOS! COMICS managed to put her in the top spot for hot comic chicks in the HORROR / GOTH / FETISH section. But that wasn't enough so they changed her white skinned goth bikini look to a more normal looking caucasian blonde woman.


The only problem was that she was now competing in the same sector as Wonder Woman, Power Girl, Jessica Rabbit, Lara Croft and all the other hot comic babes. And the others had decades to fortify their fan base.


So she lost most of her old fans and didn't win many new fans. Sometimes it's better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond.


Nowadays Lady Death has returned to her horror / goth roots but I don´t know if her readership is back to the old numbers. I used to read the series mainly because of the art by Ivan Reis who became more popular when he went on to draw books like GREEN LANTERN, BLACKEST NIGHT, BRIGHTEST DAY and the surprisingly good rebooted AQUAMAN


but the latest issues of LADY DEATH haven´t reached the quality level of her glory days.

Like Lady Death Heather Thomas tried the big pond only to become a small fish and the high points of her career were her parts in THE FALL GUY and the screwball comedy ZAPPED where she showed her lingerie.


Beyond that she appeared in such awful movies like CYCLONE and RED BLOODED AMERICAN GIRL which I had the misfortune of watching again a few months ago. And let me tell you that movie is soooo 80s but not in a good way as it has all the worst cliches from the 80s in it. Added to that it also combines the cheapest effects available at that time and a really bad collection of awful dialogue and bad ideas. Two hours of my life I´ll never get back and THANK GOD that genetics went in a totally different direction. Watching this was actually painful !

MARKIE POST : HABEAS CORPUS MAMMARIUS MAXIMUS FANTASTICUS

Anyway, after a few episodes another hot babe appeared on FALL GUY : Markie Post. She played bail bonds contractor Terri and was just as hot in a bikini as Heather if not hotter. Really, if I would have had to pic only one of the two at that time I don´t know who I would have chosen.


TV viewers got a first look at Markie Post´s 36 - 24 - 36 on THE FALL GUY in the episode " Baker´s Dozen " in Season 3 episode 4



NIGHT COURT was another of my favorite series from the 80s although as usual german television policy kept it from reaching a big audience in Germany. Like NORTHERN EXPOSURE it was on after midnight and I don´t know what the translators did smoke when they came up with HARRY´S WUNDERSAMES STRAFGERICHT ( Harry´s woundrous criminal court ).

I guess they went for that option because in Germany there is no such thing as a night court. In Germany court sessions take place during the day and if you have read Kafka´s THE TRIAL you know that bureaucracy is more important than speedy justice. Here you have to wait for justice until the sun rises. In America the system of night courts was started to battle the overwhelming flood of street crimes in the 80s - at least that´s what I think but I couldn´t find any webpages to verify that.

The series NIGHT COURT was quite funny and had Saturday Night Live comedian Harry Anderson as the unorthodox Judge Harold T. Stone, John Larroquette as lecherous prosecutor Reinhold Fielding Elmore ( Tomar - Re on GREEN LANTERN FIRST FLIGHT and Mirror Master on THE BATMAN ), Richard Moll as bailif Nostradamus " Bull " Shannon and various others.


Richard Moll not only appeared in THE FALL GUY in an episode called " The Human Torch " he also had appearances on SLEDGE HAMMER, THE DUKES OF HAZARD COUNTY and SMALLVILLE. He´s also a very prolific voice actor who did Two Face on BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES and BATMAN AND ROBIN, the Abomination on the 60s INCREDIBLE HULK cartoon, Scorpion on NEW SPIDER - MAN and Java on JUSTICE LEAGUE. I have included his iMDb sheet because his resumee is just too damn long.

Since NIGHT COURT practically ran closed to the public in Germany there are no DVDs available.


Now while Markie got to show her goods in THE FALL GUY the producers were much more timid in NIGHT COURT. There were a few occasions in which she had a hot outfit but mainly she wore a business suit - even if it could not conceal her best assets. Her stunning physique was often addressed in the show by guys constantly hitting on her - which was the realistic part. If she were a public defender I bet that guys would get into all kinds of trouble just to have her defend them.

Her first appearance on NIGHT COURT was in an early second season episode ( " Daddy for the Defense " , originally aired on October the 4th 1984 ) but she didn't become a regular until the 3rd Season because she was starring on THE FALL GUY at the time.

In one episode she helps judge Harry win an arm wrestling match by flashing her bra. Of course being a sitcom you didn´t see anything. But you can get a good idea about the size of her breasts by the bouncing action going down under the shirt just before she pops her buttons.



But don't despair true believer. There was CHRISTINE`S FRIEND, the 17th episode of the 4th Season, in which Markie showed what she's capable of. The plot was that she tried to go against her image by dressing more sexy and of course it didn't work - at least in the show. In real life : DAIMN !!!


Now this was clearly just a cheap plot by the writers to explain why a hot sexbomb like Markie didn't show more skin - especially since she had already done so in FALL GUY. And it wasn't that she didn't look as hot as before. No, quite the opposite was true. But I didn't mind because at least she showed a cleavage window in that episode to rival Power Girl.


Man, I can just imagine if they had done a Power Girl movie with her back then - ah, the countless missed possibilities of bared bodaciousness.

You must be already tired of hearing me say that I don´t want to include download links for clips and then finding some excuse to include them. I had links in some of my previous posts like for the SPIKE TV SCREAM AWARDS 2011 and one of the criteria is if you can´t get it in Germany. With the same reasoning I´m adding a clip from the episode of NIGHT COURT where Markie wears the satin dress with the Power Girl cleavage.

If this was just for readers in America I could say just get the DVD but here in Germany there is no DVD. What´s more most people here don´t even know the series. So I think it´s okay to put this small clip up.

Now with THE FALL GUY there is at least a chance that you have seen the episodes and the show might even be in reruns on some german tv station. The DVD collections were released pretty late, Season 1 on January 2008 and Season 2 on November 2008 with no release date announced for Season 3 or any of the following. So here you are :
 

Markie Post´s first bikini scene - Baker´s Dozen / small clip just 11 MB

  
new rar file with various short clips in french 84 MB password : grossnex 

Here are the other two episodes with Markie Post in a bikini, at least that I know of. I´ll have to watch more when I find them on YouTube.



Because I don´t expect the clips to survive for long on YouTube I have also uploaded them to the post from my laptop. The quality is not as good as I hoped when you go through blogger and for some strange reason blogger made a big thick black outline around the video so I had to make them really big to get rid of most of that. But it´s better than nothing and I will post better quality ASAP. Here´s the first from BAKER´S DOZEN :


By the way, I didn´t know what a baker´s dozen is because if you go to a baker in Germany and you order a dozen they only sell you twelve pieces. They are very strict that way. So I had to do a little research which is one of the perks of doing this blog : always finding out new things. The next sexy Markie Post bikini video is from the UNDERSEA ODYSSEY episode. 


Like always I want to thank the people out there who worked on the many websites I used to do the research on this post. You may not believe it, but there are some things even I don´t know so here are kudos to you guys who post those indispensable trivia pages, cool reviews or the fab pictures without which this post would look bleak. You are SO Airwolf !

Heather Thomas imdb / The Fall Guy episode list
Markie Post imdb / Markie Post Forever

Finding the adequate video for this post was a bit difficult since we had a bit of everything in this post from bounty hunters to wrestlers to superheroines in underwear and even a judge. Who knew that this post would become so long ? At first I thought I would use Markie Post´s birthday just as a intro and then come to other stuff but the more I wrote the more things I wanted to add. That´s how it goes when you think you have already written about certain things but haven´t. The whole " Bounty Hunters in tv, movies and comics " alone is a topic that deserves a long post of it´s own which is the reason why I cut it a bit short.

Anyway, I DID find the already mentioned episode with Elvira from THE FALL GUY, although it´s been split into seven parts. Typically YouTube.



New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN : top ten posts / more posts of interest


Oh well, there's nothing wrong with G - rated movies, as long as there's lots of sex and violence.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Much information and a very useful article… I like it…

SUBZERO said...

Thanks,

I know these features are not as popular as my more comic - related posts but nevertheless I try to write a solid post. And I think it´s always interesting when I can include facts that are not so well known outside of Germany.

And what can I say ? I grew up with these tv shows so Markie Post was one of my first big crushes.

Anonymous said...

Hi, was just going through the google looking for good info and stumbled across your website. I am stunned at the design that you've on this site. It shows how you appreciate this subject.

Anonymous said...

Hi admin, I'm also interested in this. (Take a look at the latest post on my site for details.) This was a really interesting read, you have definitely given me some food for thought!

Anonymous said...

I observed your blog using google and I must say, this is most likely one of the greatest nicely ready articles I have come across in a long time. I've bookmarked your site for more posts.

Anonymous said...

I won't be able to thank you fully for the articles on your website. I know you put a lot of time and energy into all of them and hope you know how much I appreciate it. I hope I could do the same for someone else sometime.

Anonymous said...

I jerked off to Markie Post hundreds of times in my teens during the mid 80's. Man she was hot. What shame she never did playboy or even a nude scene in a movie. She teased us with a lot of cleavage but we will never get to see what those glorious sweater puppets looked like totally nude in their prime. :(

SUBZERO said...

Somebody tried to post the following :

" Excellent post. Keep posting ѕuch kind οf information on уouг site. I´m reallу impressed by it.

Hello thегe, You hаve dοnе a great job. I'll certainly digg it and in my view suggest to my friends. I'm surе they'll be benefited from this web site. "

Now the reason why it was deleted is that he added a link ( it says to visit his web blog but it´s only a page on facebook ) so please, if you want to promote anything or get mentioned or get the link to your blog on TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN, use the contact info and send me an e - mail. Otherwise it´s not going to happen.